T.B.R. Westgate: Organizing Indigenous Erasure for the Anglican Church, 1920–1943

[Figure: see text] T.B.R. Westgate, a Canadian Anglican priest who administered his church’s national system of Indian residential schools from 1921 to 1943, developed a sophisticated and effective bureaucracy to operate them efficiently, economically, and in compliance with government standards. He...

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Published inToronto journal of theology Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 54 - 74
Main Author Hayes, Alan L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Toronto Press 01.08.2020
Toronto School of Theology
Subjects
Anglican churches
Assimilation
Boarding schools
Bureaucracy
Clergy
Colonialism
History
Indigenous peoples
Native peoples
Schools
Theology
Canada
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Summary:[Figure: see text] T.B.R. Westgate, a Canadian Anglican priest who administered his church’s national system of Indian residential schools from 1921 to 1943, developed a sophisticated and effective bureaucracy to operate them efficiently, economically, and in compliance with government standards. He entirely supported the schools’ goal of Indigenous erasure, which accorded with his settler colonial outlook, his theological position, and his overseas missionary experience. All his decisions were framed by the need to make do with funding that was very limited since neither the government nor the settler church put much value on educating a people that they disparaged and expected to disappear. In his role, Westgate also functioned as the Anglican Church’s principal advocate for the assimilation of Indigenous Peoples into settler culture. His efforts, rationales, and failures are evaluated with reference to some of the insights of settler colonial studies.
ISSN:0826-9831
1918-6371
DOI:10.3138/TJT-2020-0035